Storey County High Point Trip Report

Mount Davidson (7,864 ft)

Date: April 7, 2003
Author: Dean Molen
After reading all of the trip reports posted on CoHp, I found
Adam Helman's report to be very helpful as I
intended to hike to the top. Not sure of whether snow would be a problem at this time of the year, I had
snowshoes along in the vehicle but it turned out that I did not need them.
Adam described going up via the water tanks and big V on the hill and so I followed Taylor Road to where I
could park the vehicle and repeat Adam's route. Unfortunately for me, a huge dog seemed to be patrolling
the area and it wasn't in the least friendly so I decided to let the dog have its way and I would find a different
way up. I parked down on B street where it comes close to intersecting C street. A fenced-off pit area is
obvious and I parked about 150 feet north of this pit on the west side of the road.
Immediately behind where I parked, I found a way up to the hillside that led me to an abandoned jeep track
that I was able to follow for a fair distance before I started straight up the hill (according to my GPS) in the
direction of the highpoint. I had parked at 6314 elevation so I knew I had 1550 feet to climb before I would
reach the top. I could see a ridge to the north which separated my side of the hill from the side that Adam
describes but I found a rudimentary path that was leading up the hill from the jeep road so I followed that
rather than try and access the ridge and intersect the other route.
As I went up, I found that often I would take two steps up and slide back one. The ground is very rocky
and loosely compacted. I soon found a way to avoid the backsliding and began to make good time.
The town of Virginia City makes a unique backdrop as the sounds of the school yard and bells make you realize
that you are never far from civilization. It took me about an hour to gain the point where the antenna towers
came into view and my GPS indicated that I had gained a thousand feet of elevation. The last 500 feet went
fairly rapidly and I found it an easy scramble to gain the summit area. I was greeted with outstanding views
in all directions and it is obvious that Nevada has many mountain ranges as they seem to be all around you.
The view back down to Virginia City was awesome and the town looked liked a toy set.
A tribute to the 9/11 firefighters had been painted onto a rock next to the largest pole on the summit by the
Virginia City firefighters. Looking around for the highest spot, I soon found it and as I sat down to eat
some energy bars, I found the register, safely placed in the rocks near the highest point. It was in a red can
and the red can contained a glass jar with a register left by Gail Hanna, a San Diego CoHp'er. She had
placed the register back in September and since her entry and my entry, two fairly recent entries had been
made by some geocachers and some members of a 4x4 club.
I had time to call my wife on my cell phone as she wasn't aware of which CoHp I was going to attempt and
so after checking in with the boss, I headed down to the car. The last 1000 feet went pretty quickly as I
could kind of boot glissade on the loose stuff most of the way down. Hiking this CoHp was a good choice,
I'd be willing to do it again but I think I'd opt for Adam's route.
Time up: 1 hr 40 minutes, time down: 35 minutes.
Photos of my trip